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ing of their produce with each other, has naturally produced a division into five classes, which are very distinct, and have been well preserved.

"The first is the race-horse, proceeding directly from either an Arabian or Barb with an English mare that has been bred by a similar crop. This is what the English call their highest blood.

"The second is the hunter, arising from a bloodhorse and a half-bred mare. This class is very numerous; they are stronger than the first, and capable of undergoing great fatigue.

"The third is the result of a cross of the hunter with mares of a more common description-these constitute the coach-horse. It is from these two classes `that the English export so many throughout Europe, and particularly to France.

"The fourth is the draught-horse, the produce of the former with the strongest mares of the country. There are some of this breed of the greatest size, and in their form and character not unlike the horses which are seen cast in bronze.

"The fifth has no particular character, being the result of accidental crossing among the rest. Still, notwithstanding this mixture, the influence of the Arabian blood may be traced in some degree even amongst the most common sort.

"The English have procured Arabian horses, and have devoted the greatest attention and care to their system of breeding, particularly by publishing the genealogy of those which they considered as their best produce. They have well understood the importance of this publication, for by these means, they have been able to have recourse to stallions and mares that approached the nearest to the original blood, for the purpose of breeding, and thereby to preserve the breed from degenerating.

"Such is the state of breeding-horses in England, where they pretend that they have no occasion to return to Arabian horses-an opinion which appears to be founded rather on the estimation in which the English hold their own breed, or the fictitious value which they wish to put upon them, than upon fact.

"The race-horse is

in England a grand object of luxury and expense. Many rich families have been ruined by the enormous wagers which take place at their races, as well as the expense of keeping the horses. It will hardly be believed that they have carried their system to such an excess as to cover whole fields with sand, in order to produce a more delicate herbage, and more assimilated to that which grows in Arabia, from whence the blood of these racehorses originated, from the apprehension that the coarser sort of grass would affect their wind; and that five or six grooms, at six guineas per month each, are employed to take care of one horse, and that they warm the water for the horse to drink in winter, with other ridiculous customs unknown even to the Arabs."

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ON UNSOUNDNESS, AND THE PURCHASE
AND SALE OF HORSES.

THERE are few sources of greater annoyance, both to the buyer and the seller of the horse, than disputes with regard to the soundness of the animal. Although in describing the various parts of the horse, we have glanced at the connexion of certain natural conformations, and some alterations of structure and accidents, and diseases, with the question of soundness and un

soundness, it may not be uninteresting to those for whom our work was designed, if we now bring into one point of view the substance of that which has been scattered over many pages.

That horse is sound in whom there is no disease, nor any alteration of structure in any part which impairs, or is likely to impair, his natural usefulness. That horse is unsound that labours under disease, or that has some alteration of structure that does interfere, or is likely to interfere, with his natural usefulness. The term "natural usefulness" must be borne in mind. One horse may possess great speed, but is soon knocked up; another will work all day, but cannot be got beyond a snail's pace; one with a heavy forehead is liable to stumble, and is continually putting to hazard the neck of his rider; another with an irritable constitution and a washy make, loses his appetite, and begins to scour if a little extra work is exacted from him.

The term unsoundness cannot be applied to either of these; it would be opening far too widely a door for disputation and endless wrangling. The buyer can discern, or ought to know, whether the form of the horse is that which will render him likely to suit his purpose, and he should try him sufficiently to ascertain his natural strength, endurance, and manner of going. Unsoundness, we repeat, has reference only to disease, or to that alteration of structure which is connected with or will produce disease, and lessen the usefulness of the animal.

These principles will be best illustrated by a brief consideration of the usual supposed causes of unsoundness:

Broken Knees.-Capped Hocks.—Contraction of the Foot. Corns. Cough. Roaring. Wheezing.

Whistling.-Highblowing.-Grunting.-Broken Wind. -Crib-biting.- Curbs.- Cutting.- Enlarged Glands. -Enlarged Hocks.—Inflammation of the Eyes.-Lameness, from any cause whatever.—Neurotomy.-Ossification of the Lateral Cartilages.-Pumiced Foot.-Quidding.-Quittor.- Ringbone.- Sandcrack. Spavin.

Blood Spavin.- Splent.- Stringhalt.- Thickening o the Back Sinews.-Thorough Pin.-Thrush and Windgalls.

Any of these constitutes a horse unsound; consequently it has been deemed necessary that the buyer and seller should enter into a specified warrantry— which is generally thus expressed

Received of A. B. forty pounds for a grey mare, warranted only five years old, sound, free from vice, and quiet to ride and drive.

£40. 0. 0.

(Signed,) C. D.

When the receipt contains merely the word "warranted," it extends only to unsoundness: "warranted sound," has only the same meaning. The age, freedom from vice, quietness to ride or drive, and other requisites, should be particularly specified.

This warrantry extends to every cause of unsoundness that can be detected, or that lurks in the constitution at the time of sale, and to every vicious habit which the animal has hitherto shown.

To establish a breach of warrantry, and to be enabled to return the horse or recover the price, the purchaser must prove that it was unsound, or viciously disposed at the time of sale. In case of cough, the

horse must have been heard to cough previous to the purchase, or as he was led home, or as soon as he had entered the stables of the purchaser. Coughing even on the following morning will not be sufficient.

ON INHUMAN TREATMENT OF THE HORSE.

An eminent author makes the following remarks on the inhumanity practised towards the horse by those into whose hands he often falls, and with which we shall conclude this portion of our work.

"The object of our profession is to mitigate or remove the pains and diseases of those who have, although our slaves, common feeling with us. Can we honestly, heartily, successfully employ ourselves in this, if we do not sympathise with them? if we do not love to see them happy, and contemplate their sufferings with regret? Can the brute who regards them as mere machines, devoid of rights, placed without the pale of justice, created merely for our purposes, and to be sacrificed without crime to our caprices; can he by possibility, so identify himself with his profession, as to neglect no opportunity to mitigate pain, and to spare no exertion to increase enjoyment? This is the duty, and ought to be the pride and pleasure, of every veterinary surgeon. Regard to reputation, and sense of duty to our employer, are powerful principle of action; but there is another as powerful, which the scenes we daily witness, and the means by which we live, should form and establish sympathy with the feelings of our patients. What! with the feelings of brutes? Yes-brutes as we call them, but who possess, in common with us, attention and memory, and imagination, and reason, and ideas of reflection, and feelings of gratitude, and truth, and duty; in fact, all those intellectual and moral powers differ from ours, not in kind, but merely in degree.

"Dare we trace the education of the veterinary surgeon as far as humanity is concerned? See him at

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